Good evening, everyone. On Sunday night, the Green Bay Packers took on the Tennessee Titans at a snowy Lambeau Field. The Packers were looking for their 12th win as well as staying in the driver’s seat for the NFC’s top seed. What transpired on Sunday night was a very dominant win for the Packers over the Titans. Without further delay, let’s go through the details of this game.
The Packers started the night on offense after the Titans deferred to the second half. The opening kickoff went out of bounds, giving the Packers the ball at their own 40 yard line. From there, the offense went on an 8-play drive that ended with a touchdown. During the drive, the offense had no problem moving the chains en route to a score. On first and goal from the Tennessee 5 yard line, Aaron Rodgers threw a short pass to Davante Adams, who made a defender miss a tackle and got into the end zone for a touchdown. Even with the missed extra point by Mason Crosby, the Packers put the first points on the board at 6-0. The ensuing kickoff return by Darrynton Evans gave the Titans the ball at their own 35 yard line. Tennessee managed to get a couple of first downs as they got to the Green Bay 35 yard line. 3 plays later, the Packers defense forced them to fourth down and 7 from the Green Bay 32. In normal weather, the Titans would try a field goal from about 50 yards away. With the snow and the wind, Tennessee instead decided to punt back to Green Bay, with the ball going into the end zone for a touchback. From their own 20, the Packers offense went on a 10-play drive that nearly took 6 minutes of game time. During the possession, the Packers were saved from punting the ball away after a pass play to AJ Dillon that went for nothing. Tennessee’s Rashaan Evans was called for hands to the face during the play, giving the Packers a free first down. After the penalty, the offense had no problem moving the ball down the field and scoring their second touchdown of the game. On third and 1 from the Tennessee 21, Rodgers found WR Equanimeous St. Brown for Green Bay’s second touchdown. Because of the missed PAT, the Packers tried to make up for it by going for two points after the second touchdown. I liked the aggressiveness, but not the execution. Aaron Jones was stopped short of the goal line, keeping the score at 12-0. The next drive for Tennessee did not end well, as Ryan Tannehill’s pass on third and 4 was intercepted by Darnell Savage. Savage returned the pick to the Titans’ 34 yard line, where the offense started their next scoring drive. The 7-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Adams was set up by a couple of good runs by rookie RB AJ Dillon. The TD pass was a beautiful fade to the back-right corner of the end zone that was caught by Adams for his second touchdown catch of the night. The PAT kick by Mason Crosby was good, giving the Packers a 19-0 lead with 10:46 left in the second quarter. The Packers defense forced the Titans to go three and out on their next drive, thanks to the pass rush. On the first of 2 sacks, Za’Darius Smith started it while Christian Kirksey finished it off for a 7-yard loss. On the second sack, it was all Za’Darius Smith, who easily got past his blocker for the 10-yard sack. The punt by Brett Kern went out of bounds at the Green Bay 45, giving the Packers offense a great starting point to their next drive. Things started well with a 23-yard pass completion to Adams, plus another first down as they got to Tennessee’s 14 yard line. A 3-yard loss on an Aaron Jones carry and an incomplete pass forced the Packers to settle for a 35-yard field goal. The kick ended up being blocked by Tennessee’s Jack Crawford. The ball was picked up by Amani Hooker, who returned it 60 yards to the Green Bay 20 before being tackled by (of all players) JK Scott. Luckily for the Packers, the blocked kick and return were nullified by an offsides penalty. Now, it was fourth and 3 from the 12 yard line. Rather than retry the field goal, the Packers (led by head coach Matt LaFleur) decided to go for it. On the play, Rodgers ended up getting sacked for a loss of 17 yards. With 4:16 left in the first half, the Titans had an opportunity to get some points on the board before the half-time break. They proceeded to go on a 10-play, 71-yard drive that culminated in a 12-yard touchdown pass from Tannehill to TE Jonnu Smith. The score (plus the PAT kick) decreased the lead to 19-7 at halftime.
The second half started with the Titans having possession of the football. The drive only lasted 5 plays before Ryan Tannehill faked a handoff to Derrick Henry and ran the ball himself 45 yards for a touchdown that decreased the lead to just 5 points. The Packers responded right back with a touchdown drive of their own. On the first of 3 plays, Aaron Jones ran 59 yards to the Tennessee 7 yard line. On the replay, it was revealed that Jones stepped out of bounds before the 7 yard line. Mike Vrabel, head coach of the Titans, forgot to throw the challenge flag before the Packers ran another play, which was a 1-yard loss on a Jones carry. On second and goal from the 8, Davante Adams evaded his way from double coverage to be wide open for his third touchdown catch, giving the Packers a 26-14 lead. On the next time the defense was on the field, Darnell Savage nearly had a pick-six on third and 7 from the Tennessee 33. It would have been great seeing the pick-six, but Savage unfortunately dropped the pass. The punt gave the Packers offense the ball at their own 26 yard line. From there, the offense went on yet another scoring drive. During the drive, they faced a fourth and 1 from the Tennessee 30 after Aaron Jones was stopped short on third and 1. AJ Dillon took the handoff and ran it all the way for the touchdown, which gave the Packers a 33-14 lead (the PAT kick by Mason Crosby was good). After scoring the touchdown, AJ Dillon went for his first “Lambeau Leap”. He did not quite make it all the way up, but it was a nice try regardless. Now down by 19, the Titans tried to go down the field for a score that would keep them in the game. They managed to get all the way to the Green Bay 35 before things went bad for them. On second and 10, Ryan Tannehill was picked off by Christian Kirksey, who returned the INT to the Green Bay 43 yard line. The offense did not take advantage of the situation, however, as Rodgers was picked off by Malcolm Butler (who was covering Adams on the play). Despite being down by 19, Butler decided to mock Rodgers’ belt celebration after the pick. Starting from their own 37 yard line, the Titans went on a drive that took them all the way to the Green Bay 9 yard line. Once they got there, the Packers defense made sure that the Titans were not scoring any points. On fourth and 4, Jaire Alexander made a great play on the pass to Jonnu Smith, which ended up incomplete. After the turnover on downs, the Packers offense took over and sealed the game with a sixth touchdown drive. During the drive, Davante Adams burned Malcolm Butler for a couple of big pass plays, including a diving fingertip catch on third and 10 from the Titans 41 yard line. 2 plays after that catch, AJ Dillon ran over Titans DT Matt Dickerson on his way to a 7-yard touchdown run. Allen Lazard helped Dillon with his second “Lambeau Leap” after the touchdown run. With that touchdown, the game was pretty much over at 40-14. The Titans backup offense went three and out, leading to Tim Boyle’s three kneel-downs that ended the game.
The 40-14 victory over the Titans improved the Packers’ record to 12-3 with one game left to play in the regular season. The game was wonderful to watch as it was snowing all game long. The Packers had their most complete game of the season, which included no penalties or punts. Other than the one interception, Aaron Rodgers played well with 231 passing yards and 4 touchdowns on 21 of 25 passing attempts (he had as many TDs as incompletions). He once again made wonderful throws, including the fade to Davante Adams in the end zone. 8 different players caught a pass from Rodgers, with Adams having 11 catches for 142 yards and 3 TDs. It was great seeing Equanimeous St. Brown catching his first touchdown pass as a Packer after dealing with injuries for the past 2 seasons. Robert Tonyan did not get a touchdown, but his one catch went for 17 yards. In my opinion, the player of the game was AJ Dillon, who ran for 124 yards and 2 touchdowns on 21 carries. Throughout the game, Titans players had a tough time tackling Dillon as he got plenty of yards after contact. I loved it when Dillon trucked the defensive tackle on his way to the last touchdown of the game. Aaron Jones was not that far behind with 94 yards on 10 carries. Aaron Rodgers ran for 19 yards, including a 14-yard run on the second TD drive. I really liked how well the offense played overall on Sunday night, even with that lone turnover. This performance came at the right time, seeing that the playoffs are almost here. It would not have happened without the offensive line doing their job all game long in creating the running lanes and protecting Aaron Rodgers. As long as they continue doing those 2 things, then the Packers will be able to keep things going.
I have to give major credit to defensive coordinator Mike Pettine and the unit for coming to play on Sunday night. Derrick Henry was held to 98 yards on 23 carries with no touchdowns. Ryan Tannehill was intercepted twice by the Packers defense (once by Darnell Savage and once by Christian Kirksey). He was also sacked twice on Sunday night (one by Christian Kirksey and Za’Darius Smith each). Even though Rashan Gary did not get a sack, his presence was felt during the game with his pressures of Tannehill. Corey Davis was held to no catches on only 2 targets when he was covered by Jaire Alexander (and overall). AJ Brown only had 4 catches for 43 yards on the night. The secondary had a great game, especially the trio of Alexander, Adrian Amos, and Darnell Savage. There were only a couple of negative plays, including Ryan Tannehill’s 45-yard touchdown run. Other than those plays, I really liked the way the defense played on Sunday night, creating turnovers and getting key stops along the way. Hopefully they continue to play well from now on.
On Special Teams, the Packers got lucky when the blocked field goal was nullified by an offsides penalty. Regardless of whether a penalty gets called or not, stuff like that should never happen (especially during the playoffs against good teams). At least JK Scott got the tackle during the return. Other than that, JK Scott only held for the extra point attempts as he did not punt at all. Speaking of the PAT attempts, Mason Crosby made four of five on the night. Another positive was that there were no kick returns that went for a Titans touchdown. There were also no turnovers on Special Teams, which I hope is consistent during the playoffs (as well as no penalties).
Overall, it was a dominating win for the Packers against the Titans at Lambeau Field. Next week, the goal is simple: Beat the Chicago Bears. If the Packers can accomplish this goal, then they get the number 1 seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. I will talk more about this game at a later date. Have a good night, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page.)
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